''Snow White: A Tale of Terror'' is a 1997 adaptation of the [[Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Snow White]] fairytale, attempting to take the story back to its gothic and grotesque roots. It stars Creator/SigourneyWeaver, Creator/MonicaKeena, Gill Bellows and Creator/SamNeill. The film opens with a carriage accident, fatally wounding the pregnant noblewoman Lilliana Hoffman. Her husband Lord Frederich (Neill) is forced to perform a medieval C-section to save the baby girl, who is named Lilliana after her mother. Seven years later, Lilli's father is to marry another woman, Lady Claudia (Weaver). The new stepmother is a nice woman but Lilli does not like her and turns up her nose at any attempts at friendship Claudia makes. Nine years after that, Claudia suffers a miscarriage and is rendered unable to have other children. She becomes convinced that Lilli is her enemy and tries to have her killed. Lilli escapes into the forest and hides out with seven gold miners, outcasts from the kingdom.

The film serves to deconstruct both the original fairytale and the kid-friendly one. For the kid-friendly version, themes such as rape, incest, murder and discrimination are introduced into the story and the stepmother is given proper motivation to kill her stepdaughter. And for the original, the "princess" isn't the PuritySue she was and also isn't TooDumbToLive from the attempts to kill her. The film got a limited theatrical release in Europe but went straight to television in America and was well received by critics. Sigourney Weaver earned an Emmy nod for her portrayal of Claudia.----

!!!'''This film provides examples of:'''

* ActionSurvivor: Lilli, by the end. Will and Peter aren't exactly trained fighters either, [[spoiler: though Peter misses out on the "survivor" part.]]* AlasPoorVillain: Claudia [[spoiler: dies because she tried to rescue her baby from the fire in the room]]. oh. and really you want punch Lilli in the face for her bitchy attitude towards her stepmother. Holy hell, have you ever seen a WickedStepmother who tried to be nice and motherly to her stepdaughter? Lilli really should have tried to be nicer.* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Played with, as Will is considered an outcast by the kingdom because [[spoiler: he wouldn't join the Crusaders and so his family were killed in punishment]].* AllThereInTheScript: Apart from Rolph and Lars, who don't last long, you don't hear the names of any of the other miners until the credits roll.* AndIMustScream: Claudia attempted to do this to Lilli with the apple. The apple would completely paralyze her, but give her full awareness in the "prison of her mind" as she was buried alive.* AnimalEyeSpy: Claudia uses this trick to spy on Lilli in the forest.* AntiVillain: Claudia. She is only really a villain once the miscarriage drives her mad and the enchanted mirror starts manipulating her. And then what does she want? A living child and the love of her husband. * AttemptedRape: One of the miners, Rolf, gets as far as tearing Lilli's blouse and forcing a kiss on her before Will puts a knife to his throat and tells him to leave her be. * AxCrazy: Claudia was a bit unhinged from the beginning, but after her miscarriage, she dives into this trope with glee.* BadDreams: Will [[spoiler: has nightmares about his family being killed.]]* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Older Lilli's first scene is her wondering what's out in the world beyond her home. Congratulations you get nearly murdered and forced to hide out in the woods with seven outcasts.* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Played straight for the first half of the film. Lilli is involved in a cave-in underground and is seen with dirt all over her after they get out, but is perfectly clean the next time we see her. It's implied she washes herself in the stream. Then at the end Claudia cuts her face with a pane of glass.* BerserkButton: Don't call Will a savage.* BettyAndVeronica: Lilli's two love interests, [[NiceGuy Peter]] and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Will]]. Also somewhat RichSuitorPoorSuitor, but money doesn't really matter because Lilli is significantly richer than both of them. * BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Lilli cries for the first time seconds after her mother dies. Later, Claudia's child is born dead. [[spoiler: Claudia later seeks to reverse this, wanting to kill Friedrich to give her child life.]]* BookEnds: The film opens and ends with a fall of snow.* BrickJoke: A dark example. When discussing Lilli's dress for the ball, Claudia politely asks Lilli's maid to cover her hair. Later on, when she [[spoiler: poisons the soup]] she grabs the maid by the hair and growls "cover your hair!" At the end, when Lilli encounters [[spoiler: the now possessed maid, her hair has been hacked off.]]* ButNotTooWhite: Averted given that it is Snow White. Lilli is played by fair-skinned Monica Keena and is incredibly beautiful. Though you could say it's somewhat played straight given that the original fairytale says the princess has skin white as the snow.* BuyThemOff: Peter's giving money Will and the other miners for their role in protecting Lilli comes across as at least partially an attempt to bribe Will to not pursue Lilli. * ChangedMyMindKid: Will goes after Lilli and Peter after initially walking away with the money Peter had given him for his help. * CompressedHair: It's a running gag that the servant girl Ilsa keeps forgetting to tuck her mass of curls under her cap.* CostumePorn* CreepyRavens: Villainess Claudia's pet and familiar is a raven.* DaddysGirl: In a change from the Grimm tale and the Disney film, not only does her father feature in the story, but Lilli is his pet. His not taking action to save his daughter from his wife is thoroughly justified by Claudia's manipulation and a timely injury.* DancesAndBalls: The tension in the family comes to a head during one when Lilli enters looking almost exactly like her mother.* DarkAndTroubledPast: Will still has nightmares about the events that led to his banishment and scars.* DarkerAndEdgier: Even more so than the original fairytale.* DeadpanSnarker: Claudia gets some zingers. "Brought someone to keep you company" (addressed to Jesus on an inverted crucifix when he drags her husband's unconscious body into the Church).** "''Mmmm.'' [[ImAHumanitarian Delicious]]."* DeathByChildbirth: Averted, technically. Lilliana (the mother) was already dying from a wound in her chest when Lilli was born. She instructed Frederich to cut the baby out of her because it was the only way to make sure Lilli didn't die with her mother.* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler: Peter]] * {{Deconstruction}}: Both Lilli and Claudia are deconstructions of the original fairytale characters. Claudia starts out as a loving woman who wants to bond with her new stepdaughter, but Lilli shies away from her and that ends up leading to Claudia's FaceHeelTurn. Also, the miners aren't cheerful dwarves, but outcasts from the kingdom.* DeconReconSwitch: The first half hour puts the fairytale in a realistic setting and then once Lilli is attacked, plays out normally.** Realism got thrown out of the window even earlier than that, when Lilli's nanny was killed by supernatural force.* DefrostingIceQueen* DesignatedGirlFight: Built up throughout the entire film in fact.* DespairEventHorizon: When Claudia both loses her child and is told she can't have more children, she snaps.* DisneyDeath: Played with. [[spoiler: Lilli isn't actually killed by the poisoned apple; she just appears to be dead]].* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler: Inverted. It's Claudia who sends Peter falling to his death.]]* DistressedDude: Frederich towards the end.* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Gustav]].** PsychicAssistedSuicide: [[spoiler: Claudia was making him do it with her magic.]]* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Mostly averted. Claudia forces herself on an injured Friederich as part of a spell. He doesn't seem to mind but it still technically counts as MaritalRapeLicense. But it's presented as a sign of Claudia's villainy and provides no Fanservice.* EveryoneHasStandards: The miners are rather mean to Lilli, not feeding her and making her the butt of their jokes, but when Rolf [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil tries to rape her]], they take him up on his suggestion that he should leave--at knifepoint. * EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Inverted. Snow White ''was'' a princess in the original fairytale but is simply a daughter of a nobleman here.* EverythingsPreciousWithPuppies: Invoked by Claudia, who gives Lilli a puppy to try to win her over. Lilli is ''delighted''...and immediately turns to show the puppy to [[ParentalSubstitute Nannau]]. * EvilCostumeSwitch: Claudia's outfits get a bit more vampy after her FaceHeelTurn.* EvilSoundsDeep[=/=]AltoVillainess: Claudia's speaking voice is notably lower than Lilli's, and her humming and singing are in the alto register.* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Lilli pokes a possessed maid in the eye with a burning candle. Incidentally, it was the same maid who never covered her hair when Claudia ordered her countless times to.]]* FairestOfThemAll: Claudia isn't so much wanting to be fairest in the land as to be more beautiful than Lilli for two reasons: first, because she can surpass the shadow of Frederich's first wife, second, because her beauty is all she has left as a wife after a stillbirth leaves her barren.* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Not quite as brutal as being forced to dance in red-hot shoes but [[spoiler: the mirror fragments fly at Claudia's face and she burns to death in her room]].* FallenPrincess: Lilli technically. She's forced to run away and try and live in the wild.** Implied that Will is a Fallen Prince or nobleman. They don't make big shows of killing peasant families who refuse to join the crusades.* FanDisservice: The Claudia/Frederich sex scene. Fully clothed but still icky to watch.* {{Foreshadowing}}: Nannau exclaims as she searches for Lilli that the girl will be the death of her. Guess how she died. * GenreSavvy: Lilli finds a room full of mirrors and quickly starts smashing them. Then, instead of trying to attack Claudia directly with her knife, she [[spoiler: stabs her reflection in the magic mirror, killing her.]]* GentleGiant: The biggest of the miners is uncommonly large, but he is very childlike and simple and poses the least threat to Lilli.* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Technically not a queen, but Claudia is still a noblewoman.* {{Grimmification}}* HeirClubForMen: Frederich is shown praying desperately for a son. It seems to be the only reason he married Claudia as he is still in love with his dead wife. Claudia, who admitted to her mirror that she really loved him, is not happy when she realizes this. * HeldGaze: Constantly between Lilli and Will after [[spoiler: their kiss]]. * HeroesWantRedheads: Friedrich and Lilli both fall for redheads. Later subverted by Lilli when she instead finds herself attracted to dark-haired Will.* ImAHumanitarian: Claudia has (what she thinks) is Lilli's heart cut up to eat in a stew. [[{{Squick}} She also serves some to Frederich.]]* IncestSubtext: Between Claudia and her brother Gustav.** It's clear Frederich saw his late wife when he danced with Lilli. [[OhCrap So does Claudia.]]* InverseLawOfFertility: Claudia desperately wants a child, but she only carries to term/gets pregnant (the film doesn't specify which) the one time. The baby doesn't live.* IronicEcho: The miners mockingly call Lilli "princess" when she hides with them. Near the end, when she leaves them, one of the miners says "good journey, little princess" as a sign of affection.** Inverted as when Lilli is in her coma, she hears her father saying "go away, phantom. My daughter is dead" and when she finds him again, he says just that.* {{Irony}}: Lilli rebuffs Claudia's advances for years until the miscarriage. She tries to patch things up with her afterwards. However the miscarriage is what sends Claudia over the edge and turns her against her stepdaughter.** The doctor in the group is not the one [[spoiler: who revives Lilli by performing the Heimlich manoeuvre]] and tells the one who does to leave her, convinced that she's dead. * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Will isn't exactly the nicest guy, but he cares about his fellow miners and goes out of his way to protect Lilli even when there's nothing in it for him. * LadyOfBlackMagic: Claudia's mother is implied to have been one.* LettingHerHairDown: Claudia doesn't start wearing her hair down until after her FaceHeelTurn.* LightFeminineAndDarkFeminine: Lilli is young, virginal and innocent (if bratty). Claudia is sexual and manipulative.* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Peter* TheLostLenore: The first Liliana Hoffman for Freiderich.* TheLostWoods: Where Lilli runs away to and meets the miners.* LovableRogue: Will definitely. Lars and Scar could probably count as well.* MagicMirror: Of course. It's also implied that the spirit inside the mirror is [[spoiler: Claudia's mother.]]* MamaBear: [[spoiler: Claudia is going to protect that baby. Even though he's been dead.]]* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Nannau's death. Death by looking into magic mirror, or just an inconveniently-timed heart attack?* MissingMom: Lilli's mother dies at her birth.* NamedByTheAdaptation: Holy hell, has there ever been an adaptation where '''all''' the characters are given names they didn't have in the original?* {{Narcissist}}: Claudia and Lilli. It's understandable because both are stunningly beautiful.* NiceToTheWaiter: Lilli. Too bad she's not as nice to her stepmother.* OffscreenTeleportation: One of Claudia's many magic tricks.* PapaWolf: Frederich goes out into the storm on his horse to find Lilli when he hears she's missing.* ParentalSubstitute: Lilli was raised by a nurse, who was an acceptable substitute for her mother. Lilli holds Nannau's death against her stepmother.* PimpedOutDress: Claudia's rather spectacular dress that she wears at the ball. She is annoyed when Frederich doesn't say anything about it.* PrettyInMink: A couple of Lilli's dresses have fur trims to them.* RageAgainstTheReflection: Both by Lilli and by Claudia.* RavenHairIvorySkin: Lilli's mother wished for her to have skin white as snow, hair black as the ebony window frame, and lips red as blood. Her beauty, and her resemblance to her late mother, are big factors into why Claudia wants her dead. Lilli's mother also counts, due to UncannyFamilyResemblance.* RuleOfThree: Claudia does indeed try to kill Lilli three times but the first two are different from the original fairytale. She first tries to bury her in a mine cave-in and secondly by making trees fall in the forest.* SanitySlippage: Claudia was a little unstable from the beginning, but after the ball and her miscarriage, she starts to get a bit AxCrazy. * ScarsAreForever: Will has a telltale scar on his face from when his family was killed.* SheCleansUpNicely: A variation where it happens near the start of the film. Our first image of the older Lilli is her in a nightgown so she arrives at the ball wearing her mother's dress to the surprise of many guests.* ShirtlessScene: The miners work in the mine shirtless. Will also gets another later on.* ShowerOfAngst: Leads to [[spoiler: Will and Lilli's first kiss]].* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Lilli wants to marry Peter, who is a kind doctor and travels the world. [[spoiler: She ends up with Will, who is also a good man]].* SnowMeansDeath: Lilli's mother dies laid out in the snow. [[spoiler:Inverted in the end, when Lilli's father wakes up just as it starts snowing.]]* SpoiledSweet: Played with. Lilli is nice to the servants but treats Claudia very badly.* TokenEvilTeammate: Rolf, to the miners. He wants to ransom Lilli back to her father, then [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil tries to rape her, at which point the others decide it's time he left.]] * TookALevelInBadass: Lilli is certainly more badass at the end of the story than she was at the start.* TraumaticCSection: We don't actually see anything, but the spreading pool of blood suggests Lilliana the elder wasn't quite dead when Fredrich was forced to cut their daughter out of her. If nothing else, it was certainly traumatic for him. * TrueLovesKiss: [[spoiler: Averted, in keeping with the original fairy tale. Instead, Will revives Lilliana by shaking her (which dislodges the piece of apple stuck in her throat) and repeatedly urging her to "Breathe...breathe!".]]* UncannyFamilyResemblance: Lilli looks so much like her mother as to be a symbol for her continued lingering presence in Frederich's heart.* VainSorceress: Like the original tale, Claudia is enamored with her physical appearance to the point that the magic mirror shows her to be beautiful in moments when she's not.* VillainousBreakdown: Claudia has an utterly epic one after her miscarriage.* TheVoiceless: Gustav has functioning vocal chords, which he shows when he screams. But he never speaks.* WickedStepmother: Double subverted as Claudia is quite nice and friendly to Lilli when she arrives. Lilli's mistreatment of her as well as her miscarriage sends Claudia over the edge to become the wicked stepmother.* WomanInWhite: Lilli appears at a party in pure white gown, which is visually striking as no one else does this. Plot-wise, it also spurs memories of her mother, which makes her father nostalgic and sends Claudia straight into labor.* {{Yandere}}: Claudia* YouHaveFailedMe: Gustav realizes what his sister will do to him when she finds out Lilli escaped. His deception was an attempt to buy more time before Claudia inevitably found out.